CD Reviews

Thrill Jockey (2011) High Places have changed their sound a great deal since their cool ride together began five years ago with a fresh breeze of homespun sounds, household percussion, and trickling vocals.

Tri Angle (2011) "Witch house" isn't the best tag for an act to get saddled with straight out of the gate, and when Balam Acab's first EP, See Birds, dropped about a year ago, that term had less of its current flash-in-the-pan feel.

Red General Catalog (2011) Deploying the magic touch of indie producer-superhero John Congleton, these five musicians have never sounded more like a rock band, and these 12 spacious, dreamy excursions benefit from the added muscle.

RCA/Columbia (2011) Four records in and Kasabian are still dodging that lazy comparison to Oasis, which is based mainly on their healthy egos and partly on how singer Tom Meighan sometimes pulls off the best Liam Gallagher sneer since Be Here Now — look no further than the way he stretches syllables on the cocksure, bass-driven "Re-Wired."

Barsuk (2011) As the sequenced synths and handsome beats unfold, matched in merriment by the husband-and-wife vocals of Jason Hammel and Kori Gardner, your mind is miles away from the raging fires of the underworld.